Electoral redistributions during the 44th Parliament

There are expected to be four redistributions occurring prior to the expiration of the 44th Parliament. This paper outlines the reasons why. Key points: The periodic redrawing of electoral boundaries is required by law to maintain electoral divisions of roughly equal enrolment size within a state or territory. Redrawing of boundaries is known as a redistribution. During the expected life of the 44th Parliament there will be redistributions in New South Wales and Western Australia brought about by the representation entitlement trigger which determines the number of members of the House of Representatives a state or territory is entitled to in relation to its population. It is expected that New South Wales will lose a division and Western Australia will gain a division. There will be redistributions in the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory because of the seven year provision in the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918. It is expected that the number of electoral divisions will remain unchanged in both cases. The redistribution of Tasmania, also due because of the seven year provision, will be deferred until after the next election because it is scheduled to fall within 12 months of the deemed expiration of the House of Representatives

David Cameron and Nick Clegg are stretching the British constitution, but our confrontational style of politics looks set to continue

Few expected the Coalition Government formed in the wake of the 2010 General Election to last as long as it has. This has been made possible by a process of what Stephen Barber described as ‘stretching’ of the constitution, disregarding some conventions while altering others. Despite this, our confrontational style of politics doesn’t look set to end any time soon, with a power-sharing culture and tone of respectful difference seemingly as far off as ever

Corporeal Disintegration as Last Gasp Vocal Act: the Final Works, of Murobushi, Artaud and Chereau

This essay analyses a number of performance art experiments by significant artists and choreographers, each deploying vocal innovations. The essay is based on extensive archival research in Japan and France. The distinctive form of a final, last-gasp, last-breath monologue illuminates distinctive aspects of the final works of artists and choreographers. Such a monologue, which expires at around the same time that the body which expels it also expires, often constitutes a manifestation of a practitioner's work in its most intensive form, while intimating qualities of corporeal and linguistic disintegration and fragmentation, and offers insights that span dance and performance art

The Tax Credits dispute illustrates both the need for Lords reform, and why it is unlikely to happen any time soon

The Government is currently in conflict with the House of Lords over reform of Tax Credits, with at one point the possibility of a Lords ‘shutdown’ being inflicted by the Government. Stephen Barber argues that the conflict shows precisely why the Lords needs reform, but also shows why it is unlikely to happen any time soon

UKIP’s rise could spark unplanned but welcome constitutionalreform

UKIP’s rise has caught the establishment by surprise, with the main parties doing all they can to prevent the further rise of the right-wing populist party. However their success is likely to be limited by the difficulty that new parties have in breaking into a House of Commons distinguished by its continuing use of First Past the Post and a House of Lords which doesn’t hold elections at all. Stephen Barber argues that UKIP’s rise could spark unplanned constitutional reform to correct these undemocratic anomalies

Cinemas' Sonic Residues

This essay in the field of visual culture and urban space, argues that the sound of film infiltrates and refigures the city. It suggest that, for many decades, a pivotal experience during the course of urban walking was to pass the foyer or side-doors of a cinema and abruptly hear a blurred cacophony - film-dialogue, noise or explosions from films of conflicts, music - expelled from that space. Especially in summer heat, with the opening of windows, doors and emergency exits, that sonic eruption into the adjacent urban environment, from cinematic orifices, was accentuated. The walls of a cinema auditorium form the carapace reinforcing the concentrated experience of the film-audience, exempted, for a few hours, from the imperatives of exterior urban space; that experience, especially in its corporeal dimensions, was primarily a sonic one, amalgamated from the elements emitted from the cinema’s sound-system, together with the voices and noises of spectators which - in such environments as all-night cult-movie screenings or those occupied by audiences culturally oblivious to any need for spectators to watch a film in silence - formed an incessant counterpoint to film-soundtrack elements: voices of seduction, voices of outrage, voices of adulation

The Sun newspaper has set out the terms for Britain remaining in the EU

The UK has voted to Leave the European Union by a small margin. However one of the Leave side’s largest cheerleaders, the Sun newspaper (owned by Rupert Murdoch), has spelled out the potential arrangement under which it could support the UK’s continued membership of the EU, as Stephen Barber explains

Cameron and Miliband are both right on the constitution – But for the wrong reasons

As the constitutional fallout from the Scottish Independence Referendum campaign continues, Stephen Barber looks at how the two main party leaders down south are addressing ‘the English Question’. Cameron and Miliband may be acting from short term partisan motivations, but this doesn’t mean they’re wrong. While any plausible constitutional settlement is complex, it must be based on devolution to ‘cities and counties’, with any proposed ‘English Parliament’ failing to offer real devolution of powers closer to the people

Opposition Leaders need to share power with credible ‘alternative Chancellors’ if they want to win elections

The Shadow Chancellor occupies a central coordinating role in Britain’s combative Westminster system, says Stephen Barber, who argues that Opposition Leaders need to share their power with credible and competent ‘alternative Chancellors’ if they want to win general elections in the UK, as recent events in UK politics show

A small British Senate is the best alternative to the bloated and undemocratic House of Lords

House of Lords reform was scuppered in 2011 when the Conservatives opted not to back the Liberal Democrats’ plan in sufficient numbers. With David Cameron recently opting to appoint a new tranche of Lords and bringing the total size of the chamber to the highest level since 1999, talk of reform has returned. Stephen Barber argues that despite some welcome steps in modernising the Lords, democracy is the only real form of legitimacy, and that a small British Senate offers the best alternative to the current arrangements